When you check in, believe me, you have no idea when you'll check out.
Merida is not an attractive city, the traffic is horrible, the streets are small, packed, and all one-way, there is no overwhelming reason to go to the city. There is however, Hostal Nomadas, a little place not far from the center that rents cabins and dorm beds cheap. They have hammocks hidden everywhere in their giant garden, several patios, a kitchen and nightly live music with salsa lessons. I planned on staying 2 nights tops, and stayed 5, what happened? The other travelers there were awesome, a group of 5 Swiss from ages 19-24, a crazy girl and guy from Germany, a German treasure hunter, a writer from Colima, Mexico(has done a central America motorcylce and bicycle tour), an English speaking Spaniard from Valencia (This is rare, Spaniards hate English), a tall blond English girl, a pair of easy going Canadians from the islands near Vancuver, and 6 Israelis celebrating their end of military service. Then there was me, a guy on a bike from Texas, no other Americans to be found, a Lone Ranger representing the red white and blue, this isn´t always an easy task.
Merida is not an attractive city, the traffic is horrible, the streets are small, packed, and all one-way, there is no overwhelming reason to go to the city. There is however, Hostal Nomadas, a little place not far from the center that rents cabins and dorm beds cheap. They have hammocks hidden everywhere in their giant garden, several patios, a kitchen and nightly live music with salsa lessons. I planned on staying 2 nights tops, and stayed 5, what happened? The other travelers there were awesome, a group of 5 Swiss from ages 19-24, a crazy girl and guy from Germany, a German treasure hunter, a writer from Colima, Mexico(has done a central America motorcylce and bicycle tour), an English speaking Spaniard from Valencia (This is rare, Spaniards hate English), a tall blond English girl, a pair of easy going Canadians from the islands near Vancuver, and 6 Israelis celebrating their end of military service. Then there was me, a guy on a bike from Texas, no other Americans to be found, a Lone Ranger representing the red white and blue, this isn´t always an easy task.
My encounters with foreigners usually start like this.
So where are you from (in Spanish or English) ?
I´m from Texas
I would of never guessed that, I thought you were
-Mexicans Say: Italian, Spanish or Argentinan
-Foreigners and Americans Say: Mexican, Italian, then it goes to something obscure like Serb
So you are a cowboy? (this is good)
So you know Goerge Bush?(this can get bad)
A response to the first comment is usually something to the effect
-Ya, I rode my horse trigger all the way down here, he's tied up out back.
For the second response, to avoid a political conversation, goes something like this
-Ya he's my uncle, we rope together on the ranch, he sure makes a hell of a rib sandwich
And then we go for some beers
No Mexican Woman is safe around this German
The English Language
Every school in the civilized world teaches English in their elementary schools (Mexico in Pre-K). When foriegners get together they all speak in English, eventhough not one of them is from an English speaking country. This is great for me because everyone communicates in this language, it just makes me wonder if America taught a 2nd language, like Spanish, as early as 3rd grade. Would Mexicans and Americans understand each other better? And if that was the case, would this problems between us like immigration even exist? A lot of people tell me they would do my trip if they knew Spanish, but what else could they do if they knew Spanish?
Languages in Switzerland
This country is bordered by 5 other countries and a Swiss person's native language depends on which country it borders. They speak Italian, German, Swiss'Germ (not a disease) and French. You are raised in one language and study another one of the 3 (Swiss'Germ not included) and English all through school. The normal Swiss person speaks 3 languages, a lot of them speak more (the ones I met there, 2 spoke Spanish).
The German, Swiss, and Texan people, man or woman, have something very beautiful in common, drinking a lot of beer. Having 7 of these guys for friends, made it tough to leave, we would tour something together, then drink together, then recover together. This is a tough pattern to break, it was like college again. But I kept my eye on the prize, dusted off the stallion, lubed up the R2 unit, and did leave, 3 days behind scheduled, but with 0 regrets.
Bier, Beer, Cerveza, Bere - It all goes down the same.
"Cenote", Sinkholes
The whole Yucatan state is limestone. Their roads are white (that´s coliche to yall Texans), the beaches are white, their ruins are white, even the dirt is white (white shirt rejoices). Limestone also happens to be very pourus, allowing for rain water to slide right on through creating a system of shallow underground rivers and lakes. This system is visible from 1000s of little holes in the Earth called "cenotes". It's beautiful, the limestone filters the water leaving it remarkably clean and clear. Here are some pics of the cenotes at Cuzaman, seeing and swimming in these in person was a rush.
Chichen Itza
I also did the required Yucatan trip to Chichen Itza. This is like the Disneyland of Mexican Mayan ruins, about 6000 visitors a day from Merida and Cancun flood the park to gawk at it's structures and hear their voices echo off the temples. These are some really nice ruins, I don´t know if it justifies so many people, but my point of view could be a bit skewed after seeing 20 archaeological sites. Here are some pics, check it out for yourself..
I did manage to get around Merida as well, took some of the usual pics, but like I said, not much to see.
Free Movie Friday
In the old theatre downtown a free movie is presented every Friday at 7. I love movies, it was Friday, I had no plans at 7, so I went to the showing. What do they show?.... "An Inconvenient Truth". 2 hours of Al Gore slicing and dicing the global warming problem and how Americans (the biggest polluters in the world) can fix it. I loved the movie, I had known about all the information before hand, but the former Vice President does a good job presenting it in a new light to a today's audience. BUT watching this in a theatre full of Mexicans made for an Inconvenient Free Movie Friday.
Package Bashing
Apparently the European thinks that Americans only buy packaged vacations, and that is their explanation for why I was alone at the hostal, why Chichen Itza is over-crowded, why Cancun and Playa de Carmen are no longer pueblos but giant bars and why they no longer visit the Yucatan and prefer Chiapas. I understand their pionts, but they don't see the other side of the argument, I do, I was a hard working American for 5 years, so I defended this one. First, the package deal can be a lot cheaper and less work than cutting and pasting a vacation together. Secondly, Americans have to work. Many Europeans get 30 vacation days a year not counting holidays. Spanish unemployment gives you 6 months of regular pay without having to be in country (this is called enparo). French people get a job and can not be fired. The English pound is so high compared to the peso (for example), it is not uncommon for them to work a year and take a year off here. So they have time to bum around Latin America, we are only given 4 or 5 days and then have to be back at the desk. Third, some of us just want to have fun thinkless vacations, little planning as possible without the hassle of speaking an unknown language. I don't use the package vacation, but if I had a job, a family, a mortgage, a car, (I don't have any of these, but I feel ya), I would entertain the package idea.
Small European Note
The majority of Swiss travelers I´ve met (around 10) are kids right out of high school that are taking a year off before going to college. I think this is a great idea, it gives the kid a chance to grow up on his own before taking on college. ALL the Israelis were taking a year off before college as well, but they had just finished their 2 years of mandatory military service (men and women). If you have seen a newsbraodcast only once over the past 30 years, you know there that they deserve it.
Isreal
My Isreal friends are all cool guys just hanging out. They invited me to see the area and passed me their emails. They say that it's a lot like Mexico, and the people treat foriegners spectacularly. That sounded strange to me, because of the all the problems they've had with the Muslim world, but they say that Isreal is next to America in it's diversity of races and religions because of the importance of it's cities in all faiths. Might have to give it a try one day.
Getting Used to Things
Food Poisoning
I eat in the open air markets because it's cheap and the food is authentic. Real authentic Mexican food has real authentic Mexican bacteria. In my first tour of Mexico, it took me a week to recover from such bugs, 20 episode later, I can now recover in 2-3 hours.
Insect bites
To narrow this even further, mesquito and ant bites. These critters are everywhere, you can´t avoid them, especially on the coast or near the wetlands. I´ve been bit a million times, and I´ll be bit a million more. I now just swat at every fifth one and avoid areas of high mosquito concentration after sunset. I think this is a sound technique, I mean you don´t see the locals slapping each other silly when you visit, and they never put on repelent.
Chisquitas
If you are on a Mexican beach and you feel a mosquito sucking at you but you can´t see it, it´s a Chisquita. They are very tiny green blood'suckers, but they are detracted by repellent and have the same schedule as the mosquito.
To narrow this even further, mesquito and ant bites. These critters are everywhere, you can´t avoid them, especially on the coast or near the wetlands. I´ve been bit a million times, and I´ll be bit a million more. I now just swat at every fifth one and avoid areas of high mosquito concentration after sunset. I think this is a sound technique, I mean you don´t see the locals slapping each other silly when you visit, and they never put on repelent.
Chisquitas
If you are on a Mexican beach and you feel a mosquito sucking at you but you can´t see it, it´s a Chisquita. They are very tiny green blood'suckers, but they are detracted by repellent and have the same schedule as the mosquito.
Heat
It is everywhere, it´s my invisible enemy, and I can't pedal away from him. You learn to live with him because there is no other option, and if you live long engough with out another option (cold), then that option seizes to exist and you don't miss it.
It is everywhere, it´s my invisible enemy, and I can't pedal away from him. You learn to live with him because there is no other option, and if you live long engough with out another option (cold), then that option seizes to exist and you don't miss it.
